The season ended without mercy, a meaningless game in front of a spotty crowd in the driving December rain. Their key players seemed to line up, one-by-one, to be blasted and chipped by the Redskins, resulting in a wait outside the team’s X-Ray room.

Their quarterback needed to be helped into the locker room just before halftime.The overwhelming pressure finally provided consequence, and Manning could no longer use his plant foot after a defender rolled on his ankle. He tried to stay in the game without dropping back, and threw an interception. It was the same way his season began.

Hakeem Nicks was already getting an X-Ray by then on a sprained ankle suffered a few minutes beforehand. Nicks was flagged for pass interference and walked straight off the field and into the training room. He finished his season, and quite possibly his Giants career, without scoring a touchdown in 2013.

Then came Will Beatty, the team’s embattled left tackle, who took a third quarter shot straight to his right leg. DeAngelo Hall’s helmet acted with laser precision, fracturing Beatty’s right leg and knocking him out for the game. David Diehl, also possibly playing his last game as a Giant, had to help him onto the cart. The Giants could be searching for a left tackle this offseason less than a year after singing Beatty to a five-year extension.

This 20-6 victory over the hapless Redskins may have been Tom Coughlin’s final game. The decision to return, according to a person briefed on the matter, is his. He will not be fired tomorrow on Black Monday. This could be Kevin Gilbride’s last game and Perry Fewell’s last game, too. This may be the last time Justin Tuck wears blue and white. Nicks and Victor Cruz will likely never be on the field at the same time again.

This was not how it was supposed to end. The core of a 2011 Super Bowl team will slowly be dismantled after a 7-9 season, their second straight without a playoff berth and fourth in their last five seasons. A season that began with enough promise to warrant a Super Bowl countdown calendar, finished with Curtis Painter under center fumbling snaps behind an offensive line of Stephen Goodin (LT), Dallas Reynolds (LG), Kevin Boothe ( C ), David Diehl (RG) and Justin Pugh (RT).

Peyton Hillis took a majority of the carries because Andre Brown fumbled another ball. Had Painter or any of the Giants offensive lineman been injured, there would not have been a replacement on the game day roster.

Had it not been for Jerrel Jernigan, who amassed 167 total yards from scrimmage and a pair of touchdowns, the Giants’ offense may have been immobile altogether.

In a way, it served as the perfect metaphor for a season where nothing had gone according to plan.